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“But I've come to think of you as a friend. A friend fighting alongside me for a just cause. I think that was what kept me going, even when I wanted to give up.”

Hinoka (ヒノカ) is a major playable character from Fire Emblem Fates on the Birthright and Revelation routes. The second eldest child of the Hoshidan royal siblings, Hinoka is one of the princesses of the country, commanding the loyalty of Azama and Setsuna as her personal retainers.

Contents

Profile

Hinoka is the second child of four in the Hoshidan royal family. She originally had another sibling whom she was very much attached to. However, Hinoka lost this sibling when they were kidnapped as a young child and raised in Nohr. Furious at her inability to prevent the kidnapping, Hinoka thereafter began training as a Sky Knight around the age of seven. Her natural inclination to be rash and hotblooded often made training difficult for her, a fact only worsened by pegasi only accepting riders whose hearts are calm and not ruled by passion. As a result, she had trouble training her steed over the years, often running into accidents due to not being able to properly handle it. One of these accidents allowed her to meet Azama, who tended to her injuries and helped her to return home. Forming the impression that Azama was a kind and benevolent monk, Hinoka later hired him to serve as one of her personal retainers.

According to Hinoka, she had, over the years, attempted to infiltrate Nohr and rescue the Avatar on multiple occasions, although each attempt was halted by Ryoma and Mikoto.

At the end of Chapter 6, depending on the side the Avatar chooses, Hinoka's involvement in the plot will be altered.

Prologue

Hinoka makes her first appearance in Chapter 4, where she defends Sakura from a Faceless horde. Fortunately, Ryoma, who had learnt of their plight beforehand, rushes into the scene and manages to quench the Faceless horde alongside the Avatar, Rinkah and Kaze. Upon learning of the Avatar's identity, Hinoka, overcome by joy, buries her face into their chest and sobs.

Later in Chapter 5, tragedy strikes as the cursed blade of Ganglari that the Avatar owns explodes, destroying the town and killing Mikoto. With war inevitable between Hoshido and Nohr, Hinoka accompanies her siblings to the Plains of Hoshido in Chapter 6, where the two armies meet in battle.

Birthright

The Avatar decides to stay with Hoshido as they cannot stand the atrocities that King Garon orchestrated against Hoshido and fights with their birth family to help repel Nohr, much to Hinoka's joy.

"Just a minute! The following section contains spoilers, viewing it will cost a lot. Are you prepared to pay for it?"

Hinoka subsequently reappears in Chapter 8, where she, along with Azama and Setsuna, embark on a mission to join up with Ryoma and Takumi's forces. While attempting to pass through the region that the Wind Tribe Village is situated in, the group runs headlong into the conflict that arises between the Wind Tribe and the Avatar's forces. The group is introduced at this juncture in a rather comical fashion, with Setsuna absentmindedly getting ensnared by quicksand and Hinoka attempting to help her while exasperatedly chastising Azama for his lighthearted, sardonic regard of the situation. Hinoka joins up with the Avatar after exchanging information with them, thereafter accompanying them to locate their missing brothers.

In Chapter 9, Hinoka, Sakura and the Avatar are invited into the palace of Izumo by Izana. When Izana lures the Avatar and Sakura into a trap, Hinoka, along with Kaze and Saizo, manage to save them after she comes to the realisation that Izana's eccentric mannerisms are antithetical to his royal status. However, her theory is proven wrong when they meet the real Izana, who acts in exactly the way Zola has portrayed him.

Afterwards, in Chapter 10, Hinoka and the Avatar's army are reunited with Takumi, who unexpectedly emerges while they are in the midst of engaging the ninja of Mokushu in battle. Much to their immense horror, Takumi, in a hostile reverie, launches attacks on his allies. Fortunately, Azura manages to intervene by serenading a song to calm Takumi's mind and guide him back to his senses.

The battles waged against Garon both in Chapter 27 and the Endgame see Hinoka successfully helping the Avatar slay Garon with their army. Upon returning to Castle Shirasagi in Hoshido, Ryoma is crowned Hoshido's new king in a ceremony also attended by the surviving Nohrian royals as Hinoka and her siblings proudly watch on. Some time after Ryoma's coronation, Hinoka carries the Avatar on her pegasus steed to the newly rebuilt town square of Castle Shirasagi. Here, she, alongside her siblings, prays and convenes to a new statue of Mikoto that has been erected in her honor.

"End of spoilers. It's a pleasure doing business with you!"

Conquest

The Avatar decides to return to their adopted family, shocking Hinoka and her siblings. Despite their pleas to have them reconsider, the Avatar remains resolved to return. Left with no other choice Hinoka and the others are forced to fight against the Avatar, but soon retreat due to the power the Nohrian siblings wield.

"Just a minute! The following section contains spoilers, viewing it will cost a lot. Are you prepared to pay for it?"

Hinoka later appears in Chapter 11, where she, alongside her retainers, Kaze, and Rinkah, seek to protect the Rainbow Sage from being kidnapped by the incoming forces of Nohr. The Avatar and their army eventually succeed in ascending the peak of Mount Sagesse, whereupon they enter the Sevenfold Sanctuary with the intention of seeking the Sage. Hinoka prepares her forces to defend the stronghold, but after a long battle, the Avatar eventually defeats her. When she gives the order to retreat and leave the dead behind, Rinkah informs her that not a single soldier in the Sanctuary had been killed. Much to Hinoka's surprise, the Avatar had ordered their troops to avoid killing anyone. She is thereafter allowed to escape without any further opposition from the Avatar's forces.

Hinoka makes her next appearance in Chapter 18, where she, alongside her siblings, encounters the Avatar and their siblings in Izumo. Immediately launching into a heated exchange of hostilities with Xander, both crown princes attempt to engage in a duel, only to be stopped by Izana, the duke of Izumo. Izana then proceeds to confiscate the weapons of both parties before leaving the scene. He later reemerges with two soldiers and apprehends Ryoma, thereupon unveiling himself to be but a guise used by the deceptive Zola to kidnap the Hoshidan royals. Trapped in an execution room with her siblings, Hinoka is later rescued by the Avatar's army, spearheaded by Xander's refusal to support Zola. Following the end of the ensuing battle, Hinoka and siblings join the Avatar and the Nohrians in a feast, during which they, despite their enmity, maintain peace in reverence of the laws of Izumo.

Hinoka is absent until the onset of Chapter 24, where she leads the defence of Castle Shirasagi. Alongside Azama, Setsuna and a sizable army under her command, Hinoka stages a valiant effort to protect the castle, using a Dragon Vein in an attempt to overwhelm the Nohrians with her fliers. She is, however, defeated by the might of the Avatar's army. After the battle, Hinoka unhesitatingly steps before the Avatar and demands that they take her life but spare those of her soldiers. The Avatar instead decides to spare her life, telling her to hide until they finish with their plan to place King Garon on the throne of Hoshido to reveal his true form. He also tells her that Sakura is safe as a prisoner of war. However, they demand that they take her bloodied naginata as proof to King Garon of her supposed execution.

After the Avatar and their Nohrian allies end the war, Hinoka appears with Sakura to attend Xander's coronation as the successor to the throne of Nohr. Due to Ryoma's death, Hinoka becomes the new queen of Hoshido.

"End of spoilers. It's a pleasure doing business with you!"

Revelation

Due to having formed a deep emotional attachment with both families, the Avatar refuses to pick a side to align themselves with. Despite the Avatar's desperate protests, Xander and Ryoma cross blades with each other in an attempt to sway them into choosing a side. In a bid to prevent both armies from battling each other and retreat from the Plains of Hoshido, the Avatar decides to take down both Xander and Ryoma. Hinoka and her siblings aid Ryoma in battling against the Avatar but are unable to prevent them from succeeding. The Avatar is thereafter branded a traitor and forced to flee.

"Just a minute! The following section contains spoilers, viewing it will cost a lot. Are you prepared to pay for it?"

In Chapter 16, Hinoka decides to leave Castle Shirasagi to join the Avatar's cause, despite not knowing what it is, bringing Setsuna and Azama in tow. Much to her surprise, Ryoma and Scarlet also decides to join their cause. As they bid farewell to Yukimura, he tells them that he will do his best to defend the castle, though they cannot complain should any damage be sustained to their rooms. Hinoka makes haste to the Bottomless Canyon where they join the Avatar and their army, already in battle against Hans.

"End of spoilers. It's a pleasure doing business with you!"

Personality

Though born a princess, Hinoka's personality is nothing typical of one. Serious, determined, and unsophisticated, Hinoka has the spirit of a natural warrior and valiantly charges into battle with utter fearlessness and courage. This spirit of Hinoka's is strongly complemented by her passionate sense of patriotism, one that compels her to personally take up arms in order to defend her homeland and its people from coming under harm. In this regard, she has the tendency to charge headlong into battle with wild abandon, often disregarding her personal safety and the objections of others as she does so.

Ryoma and Hinoka note that in the past, she was much more shy and even a crybaby. However, the Avatar's kidnapping proved to be a turning point both in her lifestyle and her personality. Their kidnapping is a source of much guilt and regret in her as she was unable to rescue them. Hinoka became devoted into becoming a warrior in order to gain the strength to rescue them. She is known to overwork herself to the point of exhaustion as shown in her support with Hinata.

As a side effect, this caused her to be unintentionally neglectful to Takumi and Sakura, as well as Azura, not spending a lot of time with them, with her supports being possibly the first real bonding time she's ever had with them.

Despite that, she cares deeply for them, with her supports with Subaki telling that, in the midst of a heavy storm where pegasi couldn't fly, she charged into a forest to look for Sakura with complete disregard for her own safety.

It is through Hinoka's adamant desire to protect others that a softer side to her personality is simultaneously revealed; she is, at the core, selflessly compassionate, where she values the lives of others more than she does her own, no matter what their social class may be. This is especially evident in her supports with Azama, where, in spite of his protests, Hinoka desperately attempts to salvage the life of a fatally wounded soldier, unreservedly demanding him to lend his healing assistance to her.

She is the most caring person in the army, knowing plenty of soldiers by name and being very considerate to them. Her birthday is August 18.

Supports

Overview

Base Class

Hinoka bears the characteristics of a classic Pegasus Knight, sporting high Speed, Luck, and Resistance while maintaining solid Skill. In addition to these strengths, she also possesses a great Strength stat. Her main weakness is a low Defense and HP growths, which makes Bow/Yumi users especially dangerous for her in her base class. While Hinoka's Strength growth is high, her low base in Birthright means that she will need time before she can consistently inflict high damage against foes. While she is always recruited after Subaki, Hinoka's traditional Pegasus Knight stats and overall high growth rates can quickly close the gap that may have been created by using Subaki up until her recruitment. Hinoka's Personal Skill improves allies within a two tile of her with a 2 damage dealt bonus, which gives her incentives to stay close to allies. As a Sky Knight, she starts with the Darting Blow skill, which improves her Player Phase offensive capabilities by giving her increasing her already high Speed when she initiates an attack, allowing her to double most enemy units. Camaraderie allows her to recover a small amount of health when there is an ally nearby.

Her stat growths fit well as a Falcon Knight as it is more similar to her base, but with higher Speed and Resistance caps, facts that complement Hinoka's growth profile and her Strength gives her decent damage output with a high chance to double. She does, however, have low Magic growths which can make healing a lot of HP relatively difficult; however, given Hinoka already has a salvageable magic base, a Spirit Dust is usually all she needs to complement a more effective healer. Falcon Knight offers the skill Rally Speed, which allows Hinoka to support her allies if her offensive or healing abilities are not required and syncs well with her Personal Skill. She also acquires Warding Blow at level 15, which when combined with her exceptional Resistance, makes her virtually untouchable against magic wielders on Player Phase. As a Kinshi Knight, Hinoka remains fully offensive by gaining the ability to wield Bows and Yumis. She remains largely the same Hinoka can pick up the skills Air Superiority and Amaterasu. The former improves her performance against opposing fliers by boosting her Hit and Avoid rates. The latter is a superb support skill which allows allies within two spaces of Hinoka to recover their HP at the beginning of each Player Phase and is another zone skill to sync well with her Personal Skill.

Secondary Class

Hinoka secondary class set is the Spear Fighter. Statwise, the Spear Fighter class offers higher HP, Strength, Skill and Defence at the cost of Luck and Resistance. Considering that Hinoka's base Luck and Resistance are already fairly high, the Spear Fighter class can serve to make Hinoka more balanced, both offensively and defensively. Also, since Hinoka starts off with a C rank in Naginatas, she should have little issues offensively as a Spear Fighter. Seal Defense is a great skill that she can learn in this class, as it helps her fend against tankier units like enemy Generals, for it lowers their Defense should Hinoka be unable to finish them off. Swap, the other skill she can learn, affords usage for numerous arrangements, such as providing cover for more fragile units or moving Hinoka to a particular location faster.

As a Spear Master, Hinoka can continue the same growth rates as the Spear Fighter class while also potentially gaining access to the S-ranked Waterwheel. Seal Speed is one of the skills that she can learn as a Spear Master, and it is immensely useful to her, for it cripples enemy units that she cannot finish off by dropping their Speed. Lancefaire is the other skill she can learn, and is one that will be beneficial to her due to her natural affinity for lances. As a Basara, Hinoka cannot effectively exploit the Scrolls that she gains access to too well with her low Magic. The class does, however, give her more room to channel her naturally high Luck, as well as an increased growth rate in HP at the cost of lower Strength and Speed. Rend Heaven, one of the skills that Hinoka can learn in this class, works well with her, as it gives her more power against tankier enemies like Generals and Great Knights. Quixotic, conversely, looks appealing should Hinoka get access to an offensive skill through Friendship or Partner Sealing. It does, however, come at the cost of dampening her ability to evade, which she relies a lot on for survivability.

Friendship Classes

Azura - Azura provides the Troubadour class set, entailing the Strategist and Maid promotions. Hinoka will struggle in this class, due to her abysmal Magic growth, but can learn some decent skills to bring back to another class; from Troubadour, she can learn Resistance +2, which should ideally be switched for a better skill due to her already above average Resistance growth; also, she can learn Demoiselle to help any male units near her by making them take less damage. For the two promotions, Maid sacrifices some Skill, Luck and Resistance while offering a boost to Strength, Speed and Defense; Strategist offers a boost to Magic and Luck while sacrificing a chunk of her Speed growth. Overall, she benefits more from Maid, due to her Strength, Speed and Defense already being rather high, and her Magic being too low even after the boost from Strategist. For skills, Live to Serve is not too useful due to her abysmal Magic growth preventing her from making use of healing; however, Tomebreaker can make Hinoka a decent anti-mage unit along with her relatively high Resistance growth. From Strategist, she learns both Rally Resistance and Inspiration giving her supporting skills to sync with her Personal Skill.

Sakura - Sakura provides the Shrine Maiden class set, entailing the Priestess and Onmyoji promotions. Compared to Sakura, Hinoka has an extremely low Magic growth, along with the fact that she trails behind Sakura in her Luck growth as well; however, she excels in all other stats, primarily her Strength growth, making her a more sturdy healer, but a less effective one all around. From Shrine Maiden, her average Luck can make her able to utilise Miracle occasionally, saving her from a deadly attack and making up for her lacking Defense growth; Rally Luck, on the other hand, should only be used if you intend to put Hinoka in a supporting role. From the two promotions, Priestess sacrifices some Skill growth to improve her Health and Strength growths marginally, while Onmyoji sacrifices some Strength, Luck and Resistance to improve her Magic; Hinoka benefits more from Priestess due to Onmyoji sacrificing some good growths to improve her Magic, which even after improvement is lacking and below average. Skills-wise, Hinoka can learn Renewal to replace Camaraderie from Sky Knight due to its greater healing ability no matter how many allies are around her; also, she can learn Countermagic to fight against any mages who attempt to attack her; however, due to her above average Resistance growth, it can be swapped out for better skills. Onmyoji provides Rally Magic which, like Rally Luck, can be used if you intend to keep her as a supporting role, and Tomefaire, which is not a useful skill due to it needing a tome/scroll oriented class which will not work well due to Hinoka's abysmal Magic growth.

Setsuna - Setsuna provides the Archer class set and adding only the Sniper class to her class repertoire. Compared to Setsuna, Hinoka excels in every stat growth besides Speed, where she falls slightly short, but this can be made up for by equipping Darting Blow from her base class Sky Knight. For skills, Skill +2 can be used in earlier chapters to make up for her average Skill growth, but like many stat boosting skills, should preferably be exchanged for a more useful skill; Quick Draw can stack with Darting Blow to make her even more deadly in the Player Phase by making her able to perform doubles more often and deal more damage. Sniper strangely offers no stat boosts, only lowering her Skill growth slightly; for skills, she can first get Certain Blow to make her attacks almost always hit the enemy, especially useful for enemies with high Evade like Swordmasters and Master Ninjas; Bowfaire, on the other hand, is only useful if you intend to keep her in this class set, due to her other classes not able to equip Bows.

Camilla - Camilla is only available in the Revelation route and provides the Wyvern Rider class set, entailing the Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight promotions. As a Wyvern Rider, Hinoka is rather balanced in terms of her stat growths, lacking behind mostly in Magic, Luck and Resistance; the first skill she learns is Strength +2, which is not too useful due to her high Strength growth, so it should ideally be switched for a more useful skill; the second skill she learns is Lunge, which is good for removing enemies from defensive spots like chokepoints and tiles with terrain effects. For the two promotions, Wyvern Lord trades a slight amount of her Magic for Skill, while Malig Knight sacrifices some Health, Speed, Luck and Defense for some Magic and Resistance; Hinoka definitely excels in Wyvern Lord, due to her focus being primarily on a physical Strength build rather than a Magic build. For skills, Wyvern Lord allows Hinoka to learn Rally Defense which is only useful if you intend to keep her in a supporting role, and Swordbreaker to make it easier for her to deal with sword-wielding opponents like Swordmasters. From Malig Knight, Hinoka first learns Savage Blow to deal area-of-effect damage to enemies around her target, or weaken her target even more; after that, she learns Trample, which is useful due to the abundance of unmounted enemies later in the game.

Partner Classes

Jakob - Jakob provides the Troubadour class set, entailing the Strategist and Maid promotions; the benefits of this class line are explained under Azura in the friendship class section.

Silas/Xander - Both Silas and Xander provide the Cavalier class set, entailing the Paladin and Great Knight promotions. As a Cavalier, Hinoka's growth rates are rather balanced, meaning that she can be a versatile unit who can fit a number of roles; the first skill she will learn is Elbow Room, which can help in maps with very few defensive terrain tiles, but can be swapped out for better skills later on. Secondly, she will learn Shelter, which allows her to pull vulnerable units like weakened ones or healers into cover, shielding them from any damage, which can be useful considering her high Movement allows her to get to other units with ease. From the two promotions, Great Knight more balances her growths towards a heavy hitting, sturdy unit with high Health but with lower Speed and Luck growths; Paladin, on the other hand, is a more balanced class, increasing her Resistance growth slightly while keeping the rest of her growths the same.

Azama - Azama provides the Shrine Maiden class set, entailing the Priestess and Onmyoji promotions; the benefits of this class line are explained under Sakura in the friendship class section.

Leo - Leo provides the Dark Mage class set, entailing the Sorcerer and Dark Knight promotions. Hinoka does not have the magic growths to take advantage of tomes, but the skills learned in the classes should not be overlooked. Malefic Aura has no use, since it requires the use of tome or scrolls, while Heartseeker can be used to decrease avoid for adjacent enemies, and can potentially work well with her personal skill. From Sorcerer, she can first learn Vengeance, and considering her high skill, can activate it frequently, though considering she must take damage, this could be high risk and reward. Bowbreaker is superb if you plan to reclass her to Sky Knight, as it reduces the threat of bows and yumis. From Dark Knight, Hinoka can learn Seal Magic, which reduces magic by when she starts the battle against an enemy. Lifetaker allows Hinoka to recover HP when she defeats an enemy, making it a great regenerative skill if she fluent at k-oing.

Other Appearances

Etymology

It is speculated that Hinoka's name is derived from the Hinoki, the Japanese cypress tree. This particular species of cypress is not only native to Japan, but is seen as sacred in multiple parts of the country. It is also known to be very resistant to rotting, making it a building material used in many shrines, temples and other important buildings. Osaka Castle is known to have mainly used Hinoki cypress as well.

Her name might also derive from Hinokagatsuchi, (火之迦具土) which is another name for the Japanese kami Kagu-tsuchi found in the Kojiki, the oldest surviving extant chronicle in Japan. Kagu-tsuchi was the kami of fire, and his death leads to the creation of eight volcanoes in Japan. The use of this deity for the Hoshidan princess might stem from Hinoka's recklesness, passion, and flame-colored hair.

However, it is also possible that her name may simply derive from the fact that she has scarlet red hair, as Hinoka is a shortened (more colloquial) form of Hi-no-kami (火の髪), which in Japanese literally means Fire-Hair.

Trivia

Hinoka placed 6th most popular female in the official character popularity poll held on the game's official site.

According to the Making of Fire Emblem 25th Anniversary Book, Kozaki had Hinoka’s image ready earlier than Camilla’s, as he has taken an especial liking for her concept: a straightforward and determined woman. As he wanted to make her different from the earlier Pegasus Knights, Kozaki made Hinoka to have an image of a somewhat stoic hero.

However, Hinoka did not exist in the original story draft that was written by Kibayashi.

The gender of Hinoka's pegasus is inconsistent in the English translation; In her B support with the Avatar it is referred to as male, while in her supports with Kaden it is referred to as female. In the original Japanese text, it was consistently female.

Hinoka is the only known character in Fire Emblem: Fates to have a precise age approximation - in her supports with Camilla she reveals that she was seven years old when she began her training.

(†) indicates a Hero that is obtained via Grand Hero Battles (‡) indicates a Hero that is obtained via Tempest Trials (*) indicates a Hero that is currently only available as a Special Hero (¥) indicates a Hero that is only available in Legendary and Mythic Hero Summoning Focuses